7 comments:

I can't NOT say this: you constantly criticize [and I tend to agree on this] the importation of the Midwest to the city. Yet, the article about Lakeside mentions that "Marshall and Ambel wanted to import a Midwestern cottage-on-the-lake vibe into grimy Alphabet City," and you have no comment about that?

Is this somehow different from Little Wisco because the place dates back to the previous millennium?

On another note, the article about artisanal Brooklyn made my head spin on so many levels. I do appreciate that a distinction was made between the "creative crescent" [the first time I came across this term, but it makes so much sense] and the rest of Brooklyn, especially the mention of the intern from East New York. Not everyone is or from Brooklyn is on board or even understands this old-school, high-end food fetish phenomenon, even those of us who do appreciate fine food and think about where it comes from and how it's made. An excellent, thought-provoking read, for sure.

i didn't actually read the story about Lakeside carefully. i do a lot of fast linking due to time constraints.

but i think, with a lot of these things, they don't bother me when they're minimal. like chain stores. i had no problem with chain stores until the past 5 years when they started multiplying exponentially, insanely.

so i guess i'd say i probably would not have cared about the Lakeside Lounge importing some Midwestern sensibility. it's when it became a trend, rather than a one-off quirk, that it became a problem, at least to me. and today it's a trend with a certain edge to it, an entitled edge, loaded with socioeconomic power. so that just feels different.

No one has ever explained what elements of Midwestern culture are supposedly coming to New York, except for the one bar in Williamsburg with cheese curds. NONE of the stuff regularly complained about on this blog even exists in the Midwest. At least it didn't when I was growing up there. Maybe it does now, but if so, it came from here first (or Portland or wherever).